Bath edge sealing strip

[jonbuoy]

I use strong mix of washing up liquid and water in a tub and dip my fingers in it to stop the silicone/sikaflex sticking to them if I need to fair it over, maybe that's not the right way but it works for me.

[F5 Dave]

ahh, pictures, well I'm home now, so easier. try this

so here is the 'orrible sealing strip, which looks well smart when first applied. Note red hair dye damage, but its not mine.

Now I have got All Clear under it which isn't a silicon, its a polymer something or other. erm, here:


http://www.selleys.com.au/sealants/co-polymer/all-clear


and thanks for input so far,

[flyingcrocodile46]

ahh, pictures, well I'm home now, so easier. try this

so here is the 'orrible sealing strip, which looks well smart when first applied. Note red hair dye damage, but its not mine.

Now I have got All Clear under it which isn't a silicon, its a polymer something or other. erm, here:


http://www.selleys.com.au/sealants/co-polymer/all-clear


and thanks for input so far,

Looks like an installation upfuck to me. It appears that some type of bath flashing has been installed (you can see the soft/flexible edge of it) possibly even up behind the gib board, then the wall liner has been fitted with an end cap and placed hard down onto the edge of the bath flashing. (Very strange and obviously unsucessfull way to go). As a result you have 3 layers of gaps that are all potentially allowing water ingress. I really don't believe you will be able to stop it from leaking for more than a couple of months at a time and you would need to smother the full length of each gap line to do so (and that would look shit).

My advice would be to use a sharp chisel to cut and remove the sections of flashing and end cap (that are proud of the face of the wall liner). Then rebate a peice of H3 treated 6x1, chamfer the top back edge to provide a decent groove and key into which silicone can be applied and slope the top edge so water wont sit on it. Rebate the bottom back edge so it will sit 5mm above the bath edge. (If you don't leave a gap the mass of silicone will be insufficient to stretch and will lose adhesion) Give it a couple of coats of enamel paint front and back then apply silicone into the gap between the bath and the remains of the various trims (making sure they are well covered and sealed, then run a really fat bead along on top of that so when the 6x1 upstand is installed it will squeeze out the excess. See picture below. The left side sketch shows the construction that is likely existing and the right side shows the 6x 1 splash back (yellow is the silicone).

Yes, as others have said. Fill the bath before you seal and install the 6x1 splash back and use bath & Tile silicone.

Also when selecting the silicone read the instructions and buy and use the recomended sealant primer. 100% of sealants require primer on 95%+ of the materials which they claim they can stick to. Don't be suprised that the store doesn't have the primer and it has to be ordered in. They seldom ever carry them even though the manufacturers all recomend them.

[Laava]

I think you will have ongoing problems with this set up. If the seratonew or hardiglaze is very well glued to what ever is behind it and the actual wall lining feels solid, I would tile it. Cut the plastic cap mould off carefully, remove all fixtures and tile it putting a waterproof membrane on first down and onto the bath.
Not as expensive as you might think if you do it yourself.

[F5 Dave]

um a picture paints a thousand words. or can be deceiving.

So the wall is gib & the back of the shower is plastic. Not hardboard coated in plastic. Just a formed right angle white plastic section screwed & bonded to the gib. Its about 4mm thick. It comes down lower than the batch edge I think.

The PVC strip you see is not PVC

That is the Red Devil strip seal & is like a tape that folds with a right angle. I have All Cleared underneath that.


Here's the wankers product:



http://www.reddevil.com/index.php?l=...t_detail&p=865

or maybe it was the tube & wall one:

http://www.reddevil.com/index.php?l=...t_detail&p=861

[Laava]

Looks like the acrylic bath panel has been fitted with push in "xmas tree" type fixings. WTF? I would be removing the plastic panel and tiling the whole wall to solve the problem. My 2c

[F5 Dave]

Hey I'm here to get opinions & ideas so appreciate the feedback.

The push in fixings: the round one above the strip? that is a plastic cover over the counter sunk screws. I don't think that is the issue.

Tiling; hmm, sounds like more work than I want to undertake, I have many more projects involving motorbikes. I don't think the Acrylic is leaking, just the interface to the bath.


I thought the Selleys all clear fixed the leak issue & well it did for a while, but it looked ugly. Maybe cut it off & try with caulking?

The sealing strip will come off easy enough, it was doing it by itself. Pity it didn't stick, as I said we have it on the ensuite sink & it keeps ungluing itself.

[flyingcrocodile46]

Is there a solid nog in the wall along the edge of the bath (to support the linings and eliminate excessive/any movement of the wall lining)? Try pushing against the wall lining (down at the bath edge) to see if there is any movement. If there is, then it won't matter what sort of lining you install (incl and especially tiles), you aren't going to get a serviceable seal. The wall lining needs to be rigid and so does the bath. If this is the case you need to either remove the bath and wall linings to install the nogs (then re-line it all properly) or (if the bath, but not wall is rigid) you could try installing something like ...... fuck it! it is all getting a bit too hard and dodgy. Burn the fucker down and start again

[F5 Dave]

ok I'll got push on it tonight. and look up what a Nog is. hmm, ok, thank you wiki I think

[flyingcrocodile46]

ok I'll got push on it tonight. and look up what a Nog is. hmm, ok, thank you wiki I think

They are also called dwangs. A horizontal timber framing member that is installed/nailed between studs (they are the big vertical bits)

[F5 Dave]

dwang I would have got. dwang it!

[neels]

I had that stupid sealing strip at my house, ripped it off filled the bath with water and sealed the edge with almond coloured silicone to match the bath and tiles, looked a million times better than that poxy stuff peeling off.

When installing a bath and lining the gib should be removed behind the bath (ideally recessed into the framing about 10mm) so the gib can come down to the top edge, and the lining can overhang in front of the bath lip so you can seal behind it out of sight.

Probably your best bet there is to clean it all up and seal it with white bathroom sealant, I had to do the same thing a while back after seratone had been installed horizontal around a bath and then leaked like a sieve. Ripped the whole lot out tiled it and silicone sealed it to the remaining wallboard, the main thing is to make sure there is a gap for the sealant to go into so it's not just sitting on the surface.

[F5 Dave]

yeah well I think that may be the only option. So it failed the push test. Bugger.

Hmm, time for a look, the corner bath is like a spa thingy & has panels in the front that are velcro'd on, so I pulled that back & it looks like a fibreglass bath (no surprise) that has an almost square profile & goes 2" parallel with the wall. But there is only a half hearted attempt at dwangs & they are 5mm clear of the edge of the bath. Even the Gib stops. Well that sucks.

[flyingcrocodile46]

yeah well I think that may be the only option. So it failed the push test. Bugger.

Hmm, time for a look, the corner bath is like a spa thingy & has panels in the front that are velcro'd on, so I pulled that back & it looks like a fibreglass bath (no surprise) that has an almost square profile & goes 2" parallel with the wall. But there is only a half hearted attempt at dwangs & they are 5mm clear of the edge of the bath. Even the Gib stops. Well that sucks.

The bathroom has a wooden floor doesn't it? Leaky bath = wet wall and floor framing and flooring which is likely starting to rot (depending on length of time and wetting frequency). How old is the house? If built between 95 and 2003 the framing is very likely untreated and can very easily and quickly rot out and loose half or more of it's structural integrity in as little as or even less than 12 months. Plus if the flooring is particle board there is a good chance that it has turned to weatbix.

Even treated framing will decay if it has been leaking for a few years or more.

I reiterate my advice to pull it apart so it can be properly assessed and fixed. If you can push the point of a 4 inch nail more than a few mm into the timber it is suspect (serious decay isn't always obviously visible). General rule of thumb is that you should cut out the suspect timber plus an extra metre of clearance along
the length of any continuous framing member that is decayed.

[F5 Dave]

This section of the house was 68 (the rest was 86). I can get directly underneath with standing room so I might have a good looksee, but the floorboards I can see under the house are real wood, probably polishable. Only gets water on it when shower head misdirected, but I take your point & will go for a decent look.